


witches and demons

by red_carnations



Series: girl!kaz and the crows [3]
Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Attempted Murder, Canon Dialogue, First Meetings, Gen, Prison, girl!kaz, prison break - Freeform, which is also canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29007198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_carnations/pseuds/red_carnations
Summary: A woman - no, agirl- stood before him, dressed in a tailored suit, dark eyes glittering in her pale face. She held a pistol in one black-gloved hand, a cane in the other. Its handle was carved to look like the head of a crow.Despite himself, Matthias shivered.No girl's eyes should look like that.
Relationships: Kaz Brekker & Matthias Helvar, Matthias Helvar & Nina Zenik
Series: girl!kaz and the crows [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551076
Kudos: 11





	witches and demons

He was squeezing Nina's throat with both hands when he felt the gun at his neck. "Hands off her, Helvar," a cold voice said behind him.

Matthias didn't look away from Nina's face. She clawed at his hands, her nails leaving long red marks, but her struggles were growing feebler and her expression more desperate; she could not hurt him, not after the long year he'd spent in Hellgate. He supposed he ought to thank her for that - making him strong enough to kill her. "Go ahead and shoot me," Matthias growled, and tightened his hold.

"If you've actually lost your mind, this is going to be a lot tougher than I thought," said that low, deadly voice.

There came a sharp _whoosh_ of something moving through the air, and a sharp pain shot through his left shoulder. Matthias' entire arm went numb; with nothing to brace him, he fell forward, nearly crushing Nina beneath him before something yanked him back by the collar of his shirt, forcing him to release his hold on Nina's throat. He twisted around, determined to free himself from this new captor.

A woman - no, a _girl_ \- stood before him, dressed in a tailored suit, dark eyes glittering in her pale face. She held a pistol in one black-gloved hand, a cane in the other. Its handle was carved to look like the head of a crow.

Despite himself, Matthias shivered. _No girl's eyes should look like that._

"Get a hold of yourself," the strange girl told him brusquely. "We're here to break you out of this place. I can do to your leg what I did to your arm and we can drag you out, or you can leave on your own two feet. What will it be?"

Below him, Nina was massaging her throat, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Seeing her that way, it was difficult not to use his good arm to finish what he'd started. "No one gets out of Hellgate," Matthias said.

"Tonight they do."

Matthias shook his head, clutching his dead arm. This couldn't be possible. "You can't just walk me out of here," he told the mad girl. "The guards will recognize me. I'm not losing fighting privileges to be carted off Djel knows where with you."

The girl tapped her cane impatiently on the ground. "You'll be masked," she said. "Costumed."

"If the guards check -"

"They're going to be too busy to check," the girl said, in the tone Nina had often used in those days on the ice - as if he were too stupid to understand whatever went on in their heads. The condescension made his anger flare again, but before he could reply, the screaming started.

Matthias' head whipped around. The thunder of footsteps was fast approaching his cell, rising in volume until a crowd of people stampeded through the passageway outside, nearly trampling each other in their rush to get away. Somewhere, guards were shouting; a chorus of roars went up in response.

Nina's eyes were wide with disbelief. "You opened the cages."

The girl swore under her breath. Before Nina - before _Hellgate_ \- Matthias might have been shocked, but he'd come to understand that outside of Fjerda, nothing was as it should be. "Jesper was supposed to wait until three bells."

"It is three bells, Kaz." The reply came from yet another girl, small and slight with deep bronze skin, her black hair braided in a tight coil. She stood in a shadowed corner, a figure covered in welts and bandages leaning heavily on her shoulder. Pieces of a guard's uniform were scattered on the floor at their feet.

The girl with the cane shook her head. "Since when is Jesper punctual?" she complained. "On your feet, Helvar."

She held out one hand, slender fingers sheathed in black leather. Matthias stared at it. _This girl - this Kaz - is either a witch or a demon, in men's clothes with a gun in her hand. Did Nina summon her from some dark hell?_ Maybe he was dreaming, or mad. They'd made him slaughter wolves, after all; nothing could put that right. Maybe that, after all he'd endured, was what had driven him over the edge.

But if he was awake and sane and the girl's offer was genuine . . .

Matthias clasped the black-gloved hand in his own. Behind him, he heard Nina exhale, but didn't turn - he would deal with her later. As he stood, the Suli girl wrapped a cloak around his shoulders and propped a mask on his head, then gave him a shove toward the door; Kaz joined them, the guard's uniform folded neatly and tucked under her arm. The cell door opened, and their odd little group stepped outside.

Kaz led the way through the screaming throng of costumed patrons. Nina and the Suli girl bracketed Matthias, keeping him moving against the flow of the crowd. His side was aching, and his head wasn't much better; at least the lack of feeling in his arm meant that one part of him wasn't in pain. With all the chaos in the hallway, the guards barely glanced in their direction - which was an improvement from how they usually treated Matthias.

As they went, Matthias thought feverishly of how he could escape. The din of the crowd made it hard to concentrate, but his mind seemed to be clearing, which was an encouraging sign. Kaz was distracted, watching the way ahead; Nina was still weak, and could never match him without her Grisha power. If he could trap her hands again - but then, there was the bronze girl to consider. She was an unknown quantity. Hellgate had honed his reflexes, though, taught him never to underestimate an opponent. Taught him to expect anything.

Still, he wasn't prepared for what he saw when they entered the arena. Hyenas were racing through the spectator seats, chasing after whatever audience members had been foolish enough to remain. An elephant trumpeted and kicked up dust; a pair of great jungle cats crouched in a cave, snarling and baring their teeth. Matthias could see blood in the sand. It brought back many memories.

Kaz glanced back and saw him pause. "Hurry up, Helvar," she snapped. "We're on a schedule here, and the plan doesn't work if you die."

_The plan. Of course._ He shouldn't have been surprised. _Witch or demon, she will use you, just as Nina did._ Though this girl might be more unnatural than the Grisha, in her own way. He shook his head and continued on.

The desert lizard met them at the tunnel. Its slavering jaws dripped foaming white poison, its tail lashing and throwing up sand. Its clawed feet propelled it over the arena floor in the blink of an eye, but just as fast, the Suli girl vaulted over the lizard's back. With a flash of her daggers, the creature was dead on the arena floor. Matthias barely had time to process the sight of it before Kaz and Nina dragged him onward. _Everything about these women is wrong._

They rushed through the dark tunnel, animal eyes glaring at them out of the cages. Matthias had no idea where they were going; he had never been in this area of Hellgate, and could only pray that Kaz knew what she was doing. He wasn't optimistic. Now that he was out of his cell, he could remember hearing her name in prison, and the words associated with it: criminal, ruthless, Per Haskell's rabid bitch. Some dark, vengeful thing lurked beneath her skin, they said, at any moment ready to emerge. It would leave nothing but carnage behind.

Finally, the tunnel ended, spitting them out onto a short wooden dock. The air outside was cleaner than anything Matthias had breathed in a year. A dense fog hung over the water, but he could see a little boat bobbing at the end of the dock, and a boy in a guard's uniform sitting inside.

"You were early, Jesper," Kaz said, nudging Matthias toward the boat with her cane.

"I was on time."

"For you, that's early. Next time you plan to impress me, give me some warning first."

The boy - Jesper - rolled his eyes. Now that Matthias was closer, he could see a pair of pearl-handled revolvers slung around his hips. "The animals are out, and I found you a boat. This is when a thank-you would be in order."

"Thank you, Jesper," said Nina.

"You're welcome, gorgeous. See, Kaz? That's how the civilized folk do."

While they talked, the feeling had begun to come back into Matthias' left arm. He flexed his fingers experimentally, eyeing the boat. If he could take down Jesper, he'd have two guns; of the others, only Kaz had a pistol, and she was clearly no physical threat. _But Nina could stop your heart before you'd even touched the oars._ Matthias shook his head. He'd just have to shoot her first. Kill her and be rid of this miserable heap of rock.

The girl with the knives stood just to his right. Though she was quick, she couldn't be more than ninety pounds; he could knock her into the water without even trying. That would distract them all long enough that he could carry out the rest of the plan.

Matthias took a deep breath. _Don't think._ He threw himself at the girl.

She stepped aside almost casually, hooked her heel behind his ankle, and sent him sprawling forward onto the dock. His chin scraped painfully against the wood, likely garnering him a dozen splinters. He could taste blood in his mouth as well: on top of it all, he'd managed to bite his tongue.

Nina and Kaz whipped around. "Clumsy, this one," the Suli girl said.

Kaz glared down at him, her eyes hard and merciless. "I warned you what would happen if you didn't cooperate," she said in a steely voice. Then: "Put him under, Nina."

A jolt of panic sent Matthias scrambling backward. "Don't."

"You're dumb enough to capsize the boat. And I'm not risking all our lives to give you another chance. If you wanted to leave here conscious, you might've tried behaving."

Nina was approaching him now, her hands raised, and Matthias couldn't bear it any longer. " _Witch_ ," he snarled, unsure if he was talking to Nina or Kaz or the Suli girl with her deadly knives and impossible speed. "Stay away from me!"

Nina halted. An uneven flush rose in her cheeks, but she gave him a stiff little nod, head held as high and proud as ever. Her fingers curled, and Matthias felt his heart rate slow. His eyelids grew heavy.

"Kill you," he mumbled, as she dragged him into unconsciousness.

He received no reply.

**Author's Note:**

> Forgot just how insufferable Matthias was pre-character development, but his internal monologue can also be very funny, so. He's got one thing going for him.


End file.
